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Killing Floor – PC

For my first Nerd Bacon review, I figured I’d start with a relatively simple game to keep my mind from imploding on itself. With this in mind, I decided to take a look at a survival horror first-person from my college days: Killing Floor, a 2009 online co-op game that promises loads of freaky head-popping fun and nothing but.

Before the review, a little history lesson. Killing Floor began as a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, one of the more popular FPS games back in the day. The mod did well enough that it attracted the attention of Tripwire Interactive, the development team behind another game that started out as a Unreal Tournament 2004 mod, Red Orchestra. They asked Killing Floor’s lead developer to port Killing Floor to their own game, and thus the Killing Floor we know today was made. So, yes, Killing Floor was a mod that eventually became the mod of another game that used to be a mod. MODCEPTION.

Anyways, let’s get into the actual game. You, along with potentially five other lucky blokes, are dropped on a map with only one goal in mind: Extermination. You and your team must eliminate increasingly stronger waves of genetic abominations called “specimens” with anything you can get your hands on. More kills nets you more money, which you can use at the end of each wave to buy even more weapons and get even more kills against even bigger specimens. In the end, it all leads up to a big boss battle against a mutant armed with a minigun, rocket launcher, and glasses… Yeah, if you couldn’t tell, this game doesn’t take itself too seriously. That’s pretty much the whole game right there. There are no complex plots to unravel or (outside of two maps that barely see any play) objectives to complete. All you need to do is kill, kill, and kill some more.

While the game may be lacking in depth, Killing Floor does try its best with the mindless combat. The weapons, from the classic pump shotgun to the cool katana, all feel beefy, powerful, and controllable. Even the dinky starter pistol is satisfying as hell to use. The game also gives you levelable “Perks” to play around with that allow you to specialize in certain weapon classes, in case you feel like doing nothing but tossing grenades or running around with a fire axe. They add some customization and a nice feeling of progression to a game that otherwise lacks both, though it should be noted that it takes a ridiculously huge amount of time to level these Perks. I, myself, still don’t have a Perk leveled to the max even after years of on-and-off play. Oh, and on top of all this, there’s also a feature called “ZED Time” that slows down time whenever someone does something impressive like land a headshot from a long distance or mow down a horde of baddies. The slowing effect is nifty, but more often than not I’m doing something mundane when it triggers like reloading my guns or running around to grab ammo.

The specimens are just as numerous and varied as the weapons; you’ll be facing everything from chainsaw-handed maniacs to screaming bondage rejects. Unfortunately, the majority of these monsters follow the questionable strategy of “slowly walk towards you in a straight line while letting out creepy sounds,” and the few that don’t simply run instead of walk. Sure, most of them have gimmicks like nullifying your explosives with their screams or shooting fire at you with their arm-cannons, but the game loses much of its horror and suspense when enemies just line themselves up for easy headshots.

The sounds and graphics are also a little disappointing, but since Killing Floor is a older, lower-budget title, they’re somewhat forgivable. Still, the dark, dirty maps become rather boring to look at, and the constant industrial metal music can be grating on the ears after a while.

Also, the voice acting. Dear Lord, the voice acting. It’s a delicious mix of awful, ham, and British that needs to be heard to be believed.

So is Killing Floor worth a purchase? Despite the game’s simplicity, I’d still say yes. While it doesn’t do anything particularly new and may not be as nuanced as other games in the genre, it still offers a bloody enjoyable experience that, at the very least, makes for good stress relief. Killing Floor’s modding community is still quite active too, so you can always muck around with community-made maps and weapons if you ever get tired of the official ones.